English

UNESCO Youth Club of Thessaloniki (UNESCO YCT) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in Thessaloniki. Founded in 2004, UNESCO YCT works under the auspices of the Hellenic National UNESCO Committee. It is a member of the Movement of Clubs of UNESCO and a member of the Greek National Youth Council.

In its almost ten years of existence, UNESCO YCT has supported and organized a lot of activities in the fields of culture, education, and science. Organising public events; promoting the International Days launched by UNESCO; scheduling seminars of formal and non-formal education; realizing regional projects with partner NGOs from other countries; running actions based on volunteerism; dealing with issues concerning the Monuments of the World Cultural Heritage of the city of Thessaloniki, are only some examples of what has been done through the previous years.

UNESCO YCT has been a partner in more than 500 youth exchange programs, giving the opportunity to almost 4000 young people to participate and live the unique experience of non-formal education. Through their participation, young people have acquired valuable experience, as they have managed to get in touch with other cultures and share their perspectives on topics concerning youth.

We are also very proud to mention that, UNESCO Youth Club of Thessaloniki was authorized by the Greek Office of the United Nations Regional Information Center in Europe to act as the main national promoter of the International Year of Youth (IYY) of the United Nations (August 2010-August 2011). Within the year, we managed to implement an agenda with numerous activities concerning youth, we edited the official Greek versions of the UN official informational material for the IYY and finally, we welcomed the UN Youth Ambassador, Mrs. Monique Coleman, in Greece. Having organized a very successful tour for the UN Youth Ambassador in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki, without any governmental support, may be considered as our upmost highlight moment, not only in terms of publicity but also because of the challenge that we had to cope with.

For the time being, the UNESCO Youth Club of Thessaloniki runs a large number of programs. Regional initiatives in cooperation with NGOs, Foundations and International Organisations, as well as youth exchange programs are only some of our scheduled activities. Moreover, the partnership in the environmental project “ENVI: Local Communities in Environmental Action”, within the framework of the Inter-Regional Cooperation Program of the European Union, can be also attributed to our well-organised efforts and activities through all these years.

Last but not least, having in mind that the city of Thessaloniki will hold the title of the European Youth Capital 2014, we have already scheduled parts of our agenda for next year, combining youth priorities and volunteerism with the general goals and targets of UNESCO.